General Impressions
Reichenbach Ocean (RL1012B) seems to be a veiled cane. I am theorizing that it is a core of Clear encased in a rich, dense transparent Blue, and then encased in Clear again. It's easy to see why I think that the whole cane is clear-cased when you look at a rod of Ocean, but the theory that it is clear-cored as well comes from a fun effect I observed in some of the beads I've made with it.

This 'fun effect' happens when you use it without mucking up the end of the rod and squishing it all together -- i.e. getting the whole end hot but not so molten that it gathers and folds in on itself. It's fun to draw ribbon-like stripes of it around a bead that is encased, and then encase over it to magnify. It looks like transparent blue ribbons, each with a darker blue outline. It's the darker blue outline that has me convinced that the rods are cored with clear. This colour makes me want to make veiled cane out of all of my densely saturated transparent colours, so I guess we'll be seeing some of that on this blog in the future.

I read somewhere (but have no idea where it might have been) that both Ocean and Antique Green are variations on the Reichenbach Soft Crystal, which I have not yet used because I also read (again, not sure exactly where) that the Soft Crystal has some compatibility issues with other 104 glass, but I am happy to report that I have not had any cracking issues at all with Ocean.

Ocean seems, when you look at the rods, like it might have some mica flecks or sparklies in it, but there is no evidence of this in any of my finished beads. My favourite beads so far with this colour all use Ocean fairly sparingly, over White or in an encased focal surrounded by Clear.

Reactions
I haven't done any of my colour tests with Clear -- Reichenbach or any other, so I can't say with any certainty whether the reactions noted here are unique to Ocean or if they might also be reactions you'd get with Reichenbach Soft Crystal and/or other Clears. Someone with some extra time on their hands could try it and let us know :)

Silver leaf goes sort of filmy and leaves greyish brown smears when melted into Ocean. When it is reduced and encased, the film becomes shinier and more interesting-looking, but doesn't really do much in the way of fun things.

I didn't really expect much from Ocean with silver glass, but both my reduction frit blend and my TerraNova2 frit seem to love this colour. I got nice colour from the TerraNova2, and the reduction frit looks nice on it as well. One of the things I like about this testing is that the glass always surprises me.

Ocean leeches the colour out of Copper Green and keeps it from doing that dark grey-green metallic thing that Copper Green so loves to do. You can see in the middle of this bead and around the dots and lines on the left-hand side how around the Ocean, the colour in the Copper Green sort of flees from the Ocean like it's afraid to get wet. On top of Ocean, the Copper Green separates so that it is lighter around the edges and darker in the middle.

Ocean doesn't really react with Opal Yellow at all, but I love how the stringer dots and lines have a dark blue edge. This is because of the nature of Ocean, not because of a reaction, but it's still pretty neat.

On top of Ivory, the blue in Ocean turns brown in a similar fashion to what happens with other blues and greens like Light Teal and Light Aqua except in a less uniform way. On top of Ocean, Ivory seems to flee to the middle of the dots and lines in a similar way to what happened with the Copper Green.

In a floral over white, you can really see the streaky results of using Ocean as stringer. The effect is messy, but still interesting. White thins a bit on the outside of the dots and lines, similar to what happened with Ivory only less strongly. There is no noticeable reaction when Ocean is used over White.

I've had quite a bit of fun with Ocean so far. Here's a little Ocean eye-candy.

Glass Colour Properties

About the Reaction Index

This index of reactions, or 'neat effects', is a work in process, and organizes the reactions I have observed in my test beads. I do not claim to have 'invented' any of these reactions, nor do I consider myself any kind of authority on glass reactions. In many cases, I have made up names that suit me to describe the reactions, and I'll continue to do that unless I happen to learn what it is supposed to be called.

I am a student of glass, and am taking a fairly scientific approach to my relationship with it. The results of that experimentation are here as a reference for anyone who is interested.